Emeril does this molten dark chocolate cake in individual ramekins that are frozen ahead of time and put right into the oven. I hate his recipes, but this is delicious, and the whole thing is done ahead, no special timing necessary, just pop in the oven when needed. I have been searching for like a week for my copy, but can't find it. Does anyone have a copy, or have any idea what I'm talking about?

Aaron,On the food network there is an Emeril recipe for "molten chocolate cakes with raspberries and cream." Is this it? It doesn't say anything about freezing it. The food network site is a little tricky. In the recipe search site, type in emeril. You get over 4,000 hits. Then type in molten chocolate cake. I don't know how to post a link, or I would.

I've made molten cakes and flourless chocolate cakes (we've been married a long time!).

For some reason, I'm in the mood for a really good pudding, or chocolatey-custardy type dessert; soothing, comforting, and decadent. I made a nice dark chocolate pudding from F&W last year, was good, but not mind-blowing.

When you mentioned pudding-y and milk-chocolately, I immediately thought of chocolate bavarian cream pie. I've never made it at home, so can't vouch for the linked recipe, but maybe something along these lines would work?

For the Pudding: Bring milk and vanilla bean to a boil in a large heavy bottomed pot. Meanwhile, whisk eggs, egg yolks, potato starch, sugar, cocoa powder, and flour. Remove the milk from heat once it boils. With the whisk in the center of the cocoa mixture, slowly pour the hot milk in and begin to combine the 2 mixtures. Finish pouring the milk in and whisk to fully incorporate.

Return mixture to the pot and cook over medium heat, slowly whisking constantly to prevent scorching. Cook until large bubbles slowly rise to the surface of the pot and the temperature is approximately 200 degrees F. Remove pot from the heat and whisk in the butter. Remove the vanilla bean from the pudding. Pour pudding into a heat resistant bowl and cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap touches the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming.

For the Whipped Cream: Combine all the ingredients in a mixer bowl and whip on medium speed. Stop the mixer when you have medium peaks and finish whipping manually with whisk.

For the Raspberry Puree: Combine the frozen berries and sugar in a pot and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook gently for 5 minutes. Strain the berries to remove the seeds. (It's easier to pour if you can put it in a squeeze bottle.)

Ganache: Bring the heavy cream to a boil and immediately pour over the chocolate. Stir to combine. Allow to cool for easy handling.

Assembly: Load pudding and whipped cream into separate pastry bags. Or you can just use a spoon. :) Alternately pipe into tall sundae glasses, starting with chocolate pudding, then the whipped cream, rapsberry puree and fresh berries. Repeat as needed and top the parfait with whipped cream and fresh berries. Drizzle with ganache for extra decadence. :)

I just hunted around a bit on the web and it sounds like cornstarch would be a fine substitute. I'm not sure why potato starch is called for here. Most pudding recipes I've used have cornstarch in them. I'll post a separate query and see what we can find out.

Funny you should post this...I made the chocolate portion of the recipe yesterday and will finish it on V-Day. I used potato starch because baking is so precise I assumed there was a good reason. You mentioned that the custard was loose in texture. Have you made the recipe? Mine turned out very dense. Imagine scooping up a teaspoon full, turning it upside down and waiting for it to drop...except it doesn't. I just conducted this experiment to be certain before I posted and then, of course, had to eat the heaping spoonful to complete the research. Yum...it is very smooth and chocolately, but I was surprised at the density. Hope I made it right. And incidentally, for those who want to try the recipe and don't have a scale to weigh the cocoa powder, its 6TB, I believe.